I have almost been convinced that no one really wants to eradicate hogs.
Leasers get all excited when they find pigs on camera. Some even complain that they do not have pigs and ask how to attract them.
I have heard ranchers complain about them, when I offered to come shoot them they say “$300 a gun" or $200 a pig. Clearly, they are not that excited about killing them all.
Many on this forum are sponsored by optics and rifle companies for their efforts at videoing hog hunts for entertainment. Go to YouTube and search “pig hunt” and you get 2,460,000 hits. This is a billion-dollar business.
Hunters come from other states and pay huge amounts of money to hunt hogs here in Texas. Some pay huge dollars for helicopter hunts. We even had one whiner on here that claimed he spent all his savings for the once in a life time helicopter hunt. Outfitters use hogs as a calling card. Shoot and axis and get a free pig. Why only one pig? Because they do NOT want to eradicate them.

I think you are onto something SS.

They’re rats to me, but many seem to see them as a notch below Cape Buffalo. Seems like the young urban dwellers are especially enamored with them. I can see why - they are plentiful and easy to hunt so there’s almost always action.

It is a two-edged sword. I was making videos long before I got associated with any optics group. They are just fun, LOL.

Many landowners do complain about the hogs but also want to charge. It is because they know the johnny-come-lately isn't really there to help with any problems, but to come in more a mini-vacation and get back to the real world. Few folks actually hunt for the purpose of killing as many hogs as they can and do it with any regularity. That is a reality and the landowners know it. On top of that, they can offset much of their losses by having paying hunters, if they want to deal with such folks.

It is true that it is big business, no doubt about it. People love to hunt hogs and people hate the destruction they do. Most people who love to hunt them just can't spend much time doing it with any regularity.

FIFY

The other day, we had some folks drive up to our house. It’s about 1800 ft from the blacktop, and you can’t see it until you’re about 200 ft away . They were great folks, just offering to “help local landowners with their problems “. I told them about the mowing, fences, washouts ect. Haven’t seen them since........

Lots of folks really want help, and want them gone . Lots of guys offering help. But the guys offering help aren’t gonna sit there all night, and look at empty pastures till the sun comes up. They want to show up, shoot at pigs in under 5 min, then make a YouTube video of the hunt, and review whatever thermal/i2 they bought last week . Owners/producers know this . They charge accordingly. The pigs do way more damage than the $they generate. But it’s better than nothing .

The figures do damages to property are estimated, and exaggerated. I was bored and had ext agent/trapper out the other day. They estimated the damage to one of our dams to be 10k . It took me about 20 min and handful of Bermuda to fixit. But if I’d hired it done, the govt way, it would have cost 10k. They’re a pain in the a**. They tear stuff up, and leave. They’re not as bad as internet makes them sound. Some folks make $, some folks get to come out here and shoot them

Yep. Or the places we go and pay would just do real eradication. There are needs for what some of the guys do one here for crop fields but outside of that, they bring in extra money and are fun for the pig hunters. My buddy is paying the ranch $200 a day for their problem... they never get rid of the problem. And don't want too from what I see they make $4K a year. Another friend says the ground they root up creates a plowed area for deer forbes. I can't argue either side.

Personally, they are here to stay and fun to hunt and don't impact deer one bit. But can make a mess of someone's yard or crops. Deal with it and don't call the news for every problem you have. That means hunt them and stop complaining. They will leave. Sit back and do nothing is being lazy. Might mean sitting in a blind for days killing them or trapping.

Exactly!....Get off your butt and do something about it!
As said they are here to stay, and just whinning about it won't do darn thing.
If hogs are such a problem, let people have access to trap and hunt them, and the less you charge the faster the problem subsides.

Bobo,

here are some specifics received today by email:

Non-target bird species impacted:

White-crowned Sparrows (121)

Red-winged blackbirds (26)

Dark-eyed juncos (11)

Wild turkeys (4)

American crows (3)

Northern Cardinals (3)

Meadowlarks (2)

Brown-headed cowbird (1).

Also keep in mind, these are the carcasses recovered. Based on studies I am familiar with, dead bird carcasses only last a matter of hours before being consumed by other animals and essentially 100% are gone with 72 hours.

That’s not good, did they state a time line as in how long bait was out?

Thank you for posting, a lot better info.

No, do not have the time interval yet, but working on it.

White-crowned sparrows and Juncos are winter visitors, so obviously it was during the winter months.

The mixture of species in the spring and summer nesting season likely would be different to a degree.

Still, the mix killed surprised me, but all are birds that feed on seeds on the ground, among other things.

So, quail likely are in the mix if there are any left in the area, but disappear quickly once dead.

Turkeys are surprising, it’s big bird. So much for a little spill over...

Interesting, unfortunately it’s not showing much promise on either end of the spectrum.

The study was for five days with fourteen feeding stations in early March.

That puts a whole new context to it. 2.44 birds a day per station (found) that’s a lot

Glad they did it up here and not Aransas.

Did they say what the tweak/adjustment going forward would be?

It’s on hold for now.

That rate of unintended kill would be devastating if scaled up to the state level.